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2-4-19
Hall is upset where media theory is going, he claims that
1. Behaviorism – American communication theorists give us too much freedom (perfect cognition,
were never duped) 1970s and onwards
Encoding/decoding
Use and gratification theory – we are free, autonomous human being, use media for pleasure
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Dependency theory – depending on the use value of the medium, we use the most
o We have dependency in the sense we are always on Facebook, get information from
there because pleasing, easiest way to reach gratifications, but never duped
o Hall does not agree
Classical Marxism
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Hall thinks people are reading Marx the wrong way
Economic determinism – we are culturally duped so have no agency or autonomy
Hall does not like this either
Agenda setting
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First principle: media filters social representation – we don’t get to reality
o Become more duped
Second principle: media professionals concentrate on a few topics and manipulate public
opinion
Gramski
Formulated prison notebooks
Notion that the biggest problem for Marxism is why didn’t the revolution come?
Anti-classical Marxism and spontaneousism and Lenin
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Thinks something needs to happen through mass mobilization
Hegemony – social/cultural influences of dominant representation of the world which become the
accepted norms of the status quo
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Works through multiple institutions
o Media
o Education
o Religion
o Politics
o Mores and taboos
o Deviance
Establish a world view through all of these institutions working together, but at the same time
there is a lot of contradiction between them
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Give us a “field of forces”
Not completely top down, but rather mixed through society
For this to work, need intellectuals – a function that consists of the fabrication of “real life” as natural
through ‘common sense representations’
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Function in hegemony to give us our common sense
Sociology, psychology
2 types:
o Type A: traditional intellectual – entrenched in dominant institutions, they have the
longest monopoly on common sense
▪ History, nobles, scholars, researchers, specializations, crafts of the mind
▪ Fellowship principle– priests and teachers and philosophers are tightly wound
within their education, hegemonic thinking is engrained in them, project
themselves as being autonomous subjects → they see the truth
▪ Recruitment from lower classes
o Type B: Organic Intellectuals – emotional questioning
▪ Thinks through their immediate context
▪ Become more and more aware of dominant hegemony
▪ “that didn’t feel right” – stepping away from status quo
▪ Start inserting themselves into culture, the fields of production, with this hunch
that something is not right
▪ They learn the craft of the traditional intellectual
• When they have the tools of the traditional, product a counter
hegemony
o Theory = all men are intellectuals, but not all men have the function of the intellectuals
▪ Hegemony is so powerful that
▪ Can filter through using our emotions and common sense
• Good sense = emotional suspicion vs common sense = hegemony
▪ Give us a little thought process
Hall
If there is no escaping control thought…
Enunciation – we are implicated in representation practices AND objectification of human labor
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Our labor and constant practices and creating actually creates the world that we see
Life activity
Representation practices are in a field of contest – lodged into identity formation
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In identity formation as a politic, we can relate to the message as a
o Gender
o Sexuality
o Class position
o
Ethnic and racial position
Media messages are encoded with hegemonic-common sense beliefs – we have the task of decoding
these beliefs
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Agenda setting
Broadcasters pre-select (professionals) and pre-arrange topics and issues for us to think about
Will provide us our preferred readings
Media professionals are within this ‘common sense’
o Cultural capital – have self-development of taste, education and social networks, what
you can buy (class)
o Media professionals are all hanging out with each other, when you look at who creates
media representations (business leaders, editors, media professionals, politicians,
celebrities → upper class) and they do not see the common sense that they are
producing, are all speaking the same language and have the same taste
o They see the world a certain way, they have the means and platform to convey these
messages, how we gain common sense
▪ Not trying to dupe, ends up happening
Decoding – all have different backgrounds
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Self-reflection mode
Infinite semiosis
Contested terrain: 1. Feminism 2. Critical rare theory 3. Queer theory
The codes
1. Dominant hegemonic code: without critical reflectivity (dope like status, but participating
audience fills in gaps with ideology)
a. Closes infinite semiosis – no longer working with some type of creative function
b. Where we find the ideological effect – will fill in gap with their
i. Oh it’s because everyone is heterosexual
ii. The wall = seal border because terrorists are coming from here
iii. Seals any potential difference others could feel with this
2. Professional code: media industry to transmit message
a. News preaches impartiality, objectivity, and discourse of facts (not true, but how it
should be presented)
b. Hides hegemony
c. Provides more and more common sense
d. Justice, inclusion, freedom
e. Elite cultural constructions
3. The negotiated code (hope)
a. Space for political agency
b. Situated logics – contexts/identity formation
i. That is not how I live my life, that is not fair representation
c. Ambivalence – see inconsistency within the code
i. Exposes fact vs. bias
ii. Race, gender, class, trans generational, viewing context
iii. Decode – is to pull on your multiple social selves
4. Oppositional code – decoding through another dominant hegemony or common sense
a. Pitted republican vs democracy
b. No negotiation
c. Alternative ideological effect
d. Political, radical sub cultures
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